GREEN BAY, Wis. -- You can assemble all the shiny new toys in the world, all the pass catchers and runners and freakish athletes. But an offense, any offense, is only as good as the quarterback. And Jay Cutler was awful against the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.

This isn't a discussion about Cutler's overall worthiness; he won six straight coming in and in doing so was becoming most everything the Bears had hoped a franchise quarterback could be. No, this is specifically about Monday night in Lambeau, about an opportunity squandered. Against a Packers defense that was there to be deep-fried, Cutler made bad decisions, repeated bad throws off his back foot, was late with passes when receivers had been open.

He publicly and animatedly ripped teammates when they made mistakes even though he committed a shopping cart full of his own and did not take back one word or gesticulation afterward. Cutler, for the record, had the same number of touchdown passes Monday night as the Packers punter, Tim Masthay, in a loss much more humiliating than 23-10 makes it sound.